


A Frozen Siren Song

by WiFiH0o



Category: Dreamcatcher (Korea Band)
Genre: 2yoo soulmates, Ancient!Handong, Conspiracy Theories, Dami is Curious, Dami is Holding a big Paradox, F/F, Fantasy AU, Fishy!Handong, Handong is Holding this Pain, Handong is Suspicous, High Fantasy, Siyeon is a Conspiracy Theorist, Soft Magic System, Wizard!Dami, Wizards!Everyone, Yoohyeon is a Crackhead, dadong, kind of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:08:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26667967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WiFiH0o/pseuds/WiFiH0o
Summary: In the winter, when everything is frozen and still and nothing changes, the fresh sheet of ice and expanding cracks creates the most haunting sounds. And every winter, Yubin traverses to the northern-most part of The Wastelands to intently listen in the dark and continue her research in hopes of grasping what was causing the growing ice and what was causing the sounds.And everything is a backdrop to a suspicious government that seems to be covering something up.
Relationships: Han Dong | Handong/Lee Yubin | Dami
Comments: 13
Kudos: 36





	1. Conspiracy theories are spread by the Government to conceal real conspiracy theories

**Author's Note:**

> Firstly, I would like to apologise for never updating but I can guarantee that this will last longer than TFBS... I think... Also, after chapter 6, idk how regularly it will update
> 
> Anyway, enjoy this story because I love writing and I don't paid (enough) for this

Yubin was no stranger to conspiracy theories, they seemed to be rampant in Tzarah of all places. Even her fellow scholarly friends whispered about them in the halls and corridors of the high walls of Khumal Academy. It was strange, albeit fun in a way it really shouldn’t be, indulging in them; Siyeon spoke of how the Beasts in manuscripts were actual creatures and how the myth of Nakhali and the Mirror were real and that ‘Yeti’s do exist! One of my dad’s friends that was a soldier for The Empire saw one!’ but Siyeon was a simple Ghifarian who was lucky to have a high ranking general to influence people as a father to get his daughter into this school – after all, the people of Ghifar were almost always poor and didn’t know right from left, let alone be able to read.

  


Besides Siyeon, most of the students attending Khumal Academy, shortened down to the unfortunate and weird sounding KumAc, were from Tzarah – the richest and most powerful city of Dimah, of course it was, it was the capital – which included Yubin.

  


Yubin was neither poor nor rich, middle class so to speak, she was just lucky to have been born to a family that resided in the area that had once just been a no-name village that was swallowed by the ever growing capital. Luck was something that Yubin had exceedingly a lot of according to her friends, though she didn’t think so, after all, it was definitely lucky of her to have all of these high expectations of graduating in the most prestigious school in all the kingdoms when in reality, everyone knew the tests were bogus and rigged and need bribing to pass.

  


But Yubin didn’t care, she was lucky enough to be smart enough to scrape by the exams, and only needed a small amount of gold to buy the marks she needed to pass exams.

  


Of course, this luck meant that she actually needed to study and just not party off into bars as most of her fellow students did when school finished.

  


But that luck was the worst luck of all because it meant that the people she hung out with were inevitably nerds and geeks and loners and somehow all conspiracy theorists. If she had to nod her head one more time to a sleep deprived kid rambling on and on about how the burning of the Library of Alexandria was one hundred percent an inside job instead of studying, she thinks that she would tear her ears off or throw them into a bear pit naked with not even a stick or book to fend themselves.

  


‘Five more days’ she encouraged herself, five more days until she could go to The Wastelands and continue her study of ice formations.

  


And it didn’t take long for those five more days to come. With Yoohyeon close to her, she embarked on the same trail and same inns she had always done, talking of different tales and conspiracy theories and different critiques of the management of the lower class by the government.

  


On the third day of their travel, Yoohyeon inevitably asked the same question she always did, “Why do we have to go to The Wastelands?”

  


“To study ice.”

  


“But why?”

  


Same old same. “You know how obsessed those creepy rich dudes are about crystals and ice magic, we get paid to research them, they get their ice.”

  


Yoohyeon grovelled, “I wish they were obsessed with farming instead, the journey to Ghamal is so much shorter, and we always end up in Hue of all places.”

  


On their fifth day, they checked in at the same cramped inn they always had for the past three years. It was the most northern located building of Haria and so desolate that everything was overpriced, but who could blame the owners when people barely came or even stayed.

  


“Off the stare at ice for hours again?” Chuckled the owner, a burly man with an impressive beard, probably more for practical reasons than for show.

  


“Yep.” Yoohyeon popped the ‘p’ of ‘yep’ and grinned as if she hadn’t been complaining about it for hours on end. “You know us, it’s ice to meet you again!”

  


Yubin sighed. “Minji’s rubbed off on you too much.”

  


“Hey, what’s wrong with a couple dad jokes here and there?”

  


“Everything.”

  


The warmth of Yoohyeon’s company was sometimes unbearably hot and burning, especially when she was with Minji and they bounced off each other like two well-made reflective spells facing each other, but in the tundra of Hue, it was always welcome.

  


And in the beginning of winter, when everything in Hue is twice frozen over and nothing changed, the fresh sheet of magically growing ice and expanding cracks created the most otherworldly haunting sounds. And as always in the past three years, Yubin sneaks out of the tent to wander far off into a lake that she was sure connected to the ocean somehow. And in the dark, she intently listened to the sounds that the ice shot, not entirely convinced that the sounds were just the remnants of old magic from past relics that created The Wastelands as they knew it – and it was then that she realised that Siyeon and her posse of conspiracy theorists were rubbing off on her too much.

  


After all, the past relics were the only other sources of power and magic in the world, no?

  


As always, she heard the sound of cracking and fizzling and noises not too unlike one of light and lightning casts with zaps and thunders, but most of all, she listens intently to hear that lovely melodic sigh between the sharp cracks. She listens for the melancholy echo under the large sheet of ice that never seemed to threaten to give way because of how thick it was; if she remembered correctly, during their first expedition to one of the lakes in Hue, if you could call that tiny pool one, Yoohyeon and Yubin tried to see who could dig or burn or explode through to the water the fastest, in the end, none of them could reveal anything past the icy depths of the lake they had tirelessly tried to weaken – and that was a lake in Haria, warmer than Hue would ever be.

  


Then she heard one of the other cryptic sounds that made her believe in the old manuscripts and myths, even for a split second. It was a thumping sound, one akin to the banging of ice she and Yoohyeon had done. But this was one really quiet, and it only occurred sometimes, it sounded like a heartbeat and it comforted Yubin in a way that ominous beating really shouldn’t.

  


Another one of her favourite sounds was the undulating water lying beneath the ice, the ones that told her it was definitely a lake under her feet and not just frozen dirt or hard rock. It rolled and swayed and took her back to the first time she had stepped foot onto a beach, though the frozen slippery ice was a much worse ground than sand would ever be.

  


And as always, Yubin crept back into the tent with a drooling Yoohyeon and rested her cold cheek onto a pillow charmed with heat, ready to sleep with the sounds of ice echoing in her mind.

  


It was morning, and Yoohyeon was already complaining about their location. “Yubin, I don’t want to go. Can’t I just stay here?”

  


“And leave me to do all the work? No thanks.” Yubin laughed at the idea, “Come on, you’re better at finding the big picture when it comes to research anyway, plus, no one can cast a spell with as wide a range as you can.”

  


Yoohyeon grinned at the compliment, feeling more ready than ever to deal with the biting cold and freezing winds of Hue, not aware of the reason behind the small smile on Yubin’s face that had appeared since she had woken up.

  


The thing was, Yubin always smiled to herself after listening to the frozen lake for hours at night. The sounds were just so charming and it made her feel as if being isolated with only the elements was not a bad thing after all – the music made from ice was just so beautiful in a way it really shouldn’t be, in a way that birds chirping was perfect and in a way that the northern lights she had spotted on their second expedition was breath-taking. Something about non-magic induced things, natural things, was so beautiful.

  


On the second night, Yubin stayed longer than she usually did, contemplating what she’d do after she graduated – which was probably work under the department of education or magic or something, if there was a department for ice, there she’d rule over with her superior knowledge and experience and joke about how she had spotted a yeti once to pull the rug under a newbie or something.

  


Then she heard it, the thumping. This time, it sounded frantic and close. Extremely close, close enough that Yubin felt vibrations this time and close enough to make goose bumps form on her skin and close enough for shivers unrelated to the cold to be sent down her spine.

  


The sounds kept her up at night instead of making her go to sleep better and she swore the once enchanted singing had cut off abruptly whilst she was listening.

  


For the next two days, Yubin could barely focus, and it only registered inside her that they needed to leave Hue soon when Yoohyeon started to unpitch the tent.

  


“Wait, Yoohyeon, I need to check something.”

  


“What could you possibly check now? Everything’s already been packed.”

  


Not listening, Yubin slung her heavy backpack over her shoulder and tugged on Yoohyeon’s arm, “There’s something that’s been bothering me lately and I need to see it.”

  


“Do I have to come?”

  


“Only if you want to,” Yubin left Yoohyeon in the patch of melted ground where their tent had been, “If I don’t come back to the inn tonight, search for me, I have our necklace on.” Digging through layers of cloth, Yubin fished out a golden necklace with an iridescent gem hanging on it, it served as a tracker and a communicator of sorts; the piece of jewellery was gifted to her by Yoohyeon’s mother as a birthday gift and it ensured that the two soulmates would never lose each other, no matter where they were.

  


Back on top of the lake, Yubin took a deep breath and spoke to ice, “Is there anything wrong? You sounded weird a few days ago.” She felt stupid talking to the ice, but to be honest, she had been doing that for years – which was one of many reasons she never told Yoohyeon about her yearly hobby. “I’m sort of worried you’re going to crack all the way or something.”

  


As always, there was no response, only the desolated sound of the wind swooping down and irritating all life in The Wastelands, not that there was much to begin with.

  


“I know you’re not alive, but it was nice knowing you, I probably won’t be able to see you again after I graduate from KumAc.” Yubin leaned down one last time to say goodbye to the lake she had grown to love. “You sound really lovely, you know?”

  


There was a saying that old things, when past a certain point gain a life or a spirit of their own, and it was stupid to believe in that when things such as magic or charms or jinxes existed, and maybe she really had spent too many late nights with those conspiracy theorists because here she was, talking to a hunk of ice on a lake as if it were a real life being.

  


It doesn’t hurt to be kind to everything though.

  


A loud crack grabbed Yubin’s attention. It sounded from directly under her. Then she felt cold limp water press up her boots and before she could question how water was able to leak up without any sign of pressure or feasible crack, she felt herself being dragged feet first through the frozen lake and passing through what had to be a metre of solid ice as if she were a ghost.

  



	2. What do you do with your life after you find out that ice is alive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pretend that this was updated on October 1st, next update will be on the 6th

The first thing that Yubin did when she felt ice cold water surround her was squeeze her eyes shut. It wasn’t exactly the smartest thing to do, but when dragged underwater through a thick layer of ice, you would probably panic just as hard as, if not more than, her.

  


Who would have thought that something so cold could be so warm though? But Yubin was sure that was just the biting cool of the water starting to induce frostbite onto her skin. If she had been quick enough, she would have remembered the words to the water protection cast, but something that school had somehow never prepared her for was casting water spells underwater - she doubted that the school could afford a suitable pool with sufficient protection against the explosive spells that the student body (including herself and Yoohyeon) loved to cast all the time anyway.

  


Besides her impending doom and inability to surface, both thanks to the previously mentioned metre or so layer of ice covering the vast lake and how damned hard it was to swim with robes and coats and bags soaked through with water, Yubin wondered how she had managed to fall through the lake.

  


She appreciated the gesture of being closer to whatever was causing the sounds, but no thanks. She’d rather not get dangerously close to a magic artifact pulsing and radiating with the manpower of a dozen or so post-graduate mages.

  


Strangely though, under the ice, all the otherworldly sounds disappeared. There were no ghostly sounds of waves or pulses of energy or hollow echoes of what had to be the earth singing and breathing and sighing. The sounds of creaking and stretching and cracking and the reverberations of the gentle cooing of the ice were gone and it was only Yubin floating weightlessly as the gravity of the situation she was in sunk heavier and heavier.

  


She was going to die. She was going to die with her silent screams lost and trapped under an almost permanent block of ice and with the howling winds of the coming winter blowing away and remaining bits of scrap she had left in the tent that she thought was too heavy to carry.

  


Then she felt it, the same cold limp water wrap around her right foot drag her deep deep underwater, where the little light that refracted past the ice could not reach and where the darkness hid all sorts of danger and Beasts - not that she believed in them of course, it was just the fact that she had been spooked was all.

  


As she was mercilessly dragged through the depths of the lake, Yubin began to flail her arms, attempting to swim upwards as if she’d actually be able to crack past the ice if she was somehow able to get released from what had to be the dragging of the artifact that caused The Wastelands to be covered in a permanent frost.

  


Gosh, such unfortunate timing.

  


Despite never having taken a swimming lesson (or being able to afford one) in her life, Yubin still fought the current or whatever was pulling her to the bed of the lake.

  


By the time she had exhausted herself, running out of breath and energy, she didn't have any energy left in her to fight whatever higher being or object was trying to kill her. She didn’t remember if she passed out first or if she hit her head on the floor first, but the order didn’t matter because in the end, she blacked out before remembering how she took her first breath in.

  


“Yubin. Yubin! Yubin!” Coughing, Yubin woke up to a warm ground and wet hair, laying on a patch of freshly melted snow, cold and shivering and out of her element. “Saturn's ring! What happened to you?”

  


It took a while of heavy breathing and burning coughs for her to recollect everything. 

  


“The - the lake. I fell through the ice. Something was dragging me down.”

  


Yoohyeon helped her sit up, and guided a warm cup of tea into Yubin’s shaking hands. Whilst Yubin began explaining the strange phenomenon of the singing ice, Yoohyeon listened intently and stripped the cold damp layers of Yubin’s clothes in exchange for a much drier and nicely toasted change of tunic and cloak and socks - never forget the socks. The boots however, Yoohyeon could do little about the boots, her foot size was too large for that.

  


“Wait.” Yoohyeon stopped the rambling student, who was sounding all too much like the conspiracy theorists in the library - just without the conspiracy part. “You said that you were dragged underwater, like magically dragged underwater by, like, a current, right?”

  


She nodded, “Yeah, why?”

  


Yoohyeon lifted up the soggy boots, “How come there’s claw marks here.” She pointed at the three long gashes that started at the calves and ended just before the ankle, turning it around to reveal two more slightly shorter marks. “I don’t know about you, but that looks like a hand to me.”

  


Yubin leaned over and took a look at the other boot; she remembered being dragged down by both of her feet at first, but the first time, it felt more like a pair of wet intangible vines grabbing her - more like a water whip than claws. The second time, she didn’t recall all too much, mainly busy panicking and struggling and thinking she was about to drown to death before completing her studies.

  


She turned the other boot over. Lo and behold, there were no marks to speak of.

  


Yubin swapped boots with Yoohyeon and traced her fingers over the marks, it fit, her fingers that was. Her fingers fit the three cuts all too perfectly and whatever had dragged her down had exceedingly humanoid features.

  


“Don’t tell me you’re thinking what I’m thinking.”

  


Yubin looked up at Yoohyeon after she saw Yubin following the trail of ripped leather with her fingernails one more time. “What?”

  


“You know… The claws, the water, the elemental magic, the animal-like features.”

  


They sat still, afraid of the judgement and then spoke together at the same time.

  


“Beasts!”

  


They both cracked a wide grin, laughing at the absurdity of it all. Moons and above, Beasts were all so haggard and unrealistic, who could believe in such a powerful hulking creature that could swim, fly, run and breathe fire and frost on a whim. A creature that could simultaneously look just like a human and not, with wings like a bat or sometimes a bird or sometimes a butterfly. Even the theorists fought amongst themselves about what wings they had, which only decreased their credibility.

  


“Well, I think it’s an artifact.” Said Yubin.

  


“But artifacts can’t inflict physical damage, they can only charm or change environments. And even if they could, this?” Yoohyeon snatched the right boot and pointed at the slashes once more, “This? This is so much more than a scummy artifact.”

  


“I know,” sighed Yubin, “but what do you want me to say about it? We discovered an unknown creature that could phase things through solids and manipulate water and physically manifest into hands?”

  


Yoohyeon stroked her chin, humming in deep thought. “Damn, now I wish that people stopped exploring The Wastelands back in the two hundreds. Ah, if only they had left more than an outdated map and a few tips of how to avoid yetis.”

  


Yetis: it was always the yeti when it came to conspiracy theories. The government classified them as a subcategory for Beasts and dismissed them. ‘Nomads or adventurers lurking about in highly reflective gear are sometimes mistaken for these Beasts, don’t cast without double checking’ is what was listed under the maps of Himal and Hue; they were right of course, there were a few scuffs and battles and injured and dead people because of the confusion, and it led to changes in the clothes that the inhabitants of The Wastelands wore - less fur and more heat charms.

  


“I want to go back.”

  


Yoohyeon smacked Yubin on the arm, “And get yourself killed?”

  


The silence became a ‘yes’ and Yoohyeon’s grunt of a no became a ‘sure’. She knew Yubin too well to know that she wasn’t going to pass on an opportunity. “I’ll come this time. Just make sure that you drag me down with you, okay?”

  


The crunching sound of fresh untouched snow was always welcome to Yubin, and this time, there were two sets of them.

  


“Do you always walk this far just for a lake?”

  


Yubin nodded, though she doubted that Yoohyeon could see it through the layers of scarves wrapped around her neck and the hood she secured safely onto her head. When the two reached the area where Yubin had been dragged down to, they stopped.

  


“Hey,” started Yoohyeon again, “How did you reach the surface after being dragged down?”

  


“I don’t remember. All I remember is you waking me up.”

  


Yoohyeon inspected the ice, standing just where Yubin had last stood, startled by the howling that seemed to emerge from under her feet. “Wow, you weren’t kidding when you said the ice was singing… But anyway, I found you on top of the ice unscathed, other than your shoe of course. So who pulled you back up?”

  


“I’d rather know who dragged me down,” countered Yubin, pacing about Yoohyeon. “Talk about insincerity, I talked to them for hours and that was the thanks I got?”

  


Yubin clicked her tongue. Annoyed that the last few moments she had spent admiring nature had turned into a giant bed of mysteries.

  


A crack sounded, this time between herself and Yoohyeon. They both looked at each other.

  


“You heard that right?” Yubin nodded, it was close to the surface somehow and it sounded as if it was spreading closer to Yoohyeon.

  


“Yoohyeon, you need to start moving towards the land.” In response, she shifted her foot.

  


The sounds only got louder.

  


“Yubin, I’m scared.”

  


And they knew that whatever was lurking beneath the surface had to be powerful to be able to damage the ice like that in one go when neither of the two with their forces combined could even fathom of landing a substantial blow to it.

  


Yubin tried to move closer to her and advised Yoohyeon to spread her weight across the ice wider. There was no way it was going to give way, was it? Not even the most concentrated explode spell did much to chip a centimetre into the ice here in Hue.

  


“I’m scared too.” Admitted Yubin.

  


It happened and Yubin was able to observe it carefully this time, water pooled under Yoohyeon’s boots and grew and grew upwards.

  


“Yubin, what’s happening?”

  


Somehow, it felt slower than last time, maybe it was on purpose, or maybe it was because Yubin was aware it was going to happen.

  


She gulped. “I don’t know.”

  


A ribbon of water spiralled upwards and started to latch on Yoohyeon’s boots, sinking her down. Yubin didn’t know why, but it was happening slowly and it was torture watching the life drain from Yoohyeon’s face. So she ran. She ran and pushed her, making her tumble and skid and slide all the way to ground with a few grunts and complaints. And as soon as her foot came into contact with the mystical pool of water Yoohyeon had previously been sinking into, she felt herself being grabbed onto tightly and her ankle clicked with the sheer force of the pull.

  


What had once been an agonisingly slow descent for Yoohyeon had turned into a brutish yank for Yubin. This ice was really out for her, wasn’t it?

  


“Yubin? Yubin!” Was the last thing she heard before all that filled her ears was the icy water of the lake again. Yubin was more prepared this time though, she had ensured to take a deep breath in and was ready to face whatever was lurking in the depths of the water with an enchanted choker around her neck acting as temporary gills and eyes wide open.

  


She had eight minutes.


	3. I don’t know about you, but if I heard a mysterious voice speaking to me, I’d run away as fast as I could

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updating... In about 2 weeks? Lol  
> Also, I know that there's another similar fic with a similar title to this, but this has been in the drafts for months so... Yeah, not even inspiration either

Something Yubin learned quite quickly was that no matter what, no matter how hard she tried to speak or sound out the words or even do the shortest spells, verbal based magic did not work underwater. Or maybe it was the fact that the water was enchanted with an artifact that was cancelling her ability to use oral spells. Whatever it was, Yubin swapped to relying on arcane magic, sparking a ball of yellow light between her palms. The light yellow scattered and diffused quickly, only illuminating a metre or so around Yubin in all directions.

  


“Hello?” Her voice echoed aimlessly. The words sounded distorted and warbled. Hopelessly, she started talking once more in hopes of delaying the monster that lurked underwater. “I don’t mean any harm. I’ll - I’ll leave, I won’t be disturbing you for long.”

  


Among the bubbling sounds of water, nothing replied and Yubin felt herself deflate as all that replied to her was the sounds of waves moving and bouncing off the ice above her.

  


Then the hollow icy sounds, the distant whistling and ominous humming grew louder with every waning second. Was - was it alive? Was there something else alive here? There, surrounding her from all directions thundered a deep almost trumpet like sound, as if someone had sounded a war horn from miles away.

  


“Hello?” The singing sounded closer to her, it sounded like it was behind her. “Hello?”

  


Before she could say one more ‘hello’ however, a limp hand covered her mouth, it was slick and smooth and humanoid. Muffled, Yubin still attempted to speak, which led to the hand pressing onto her mouth harder. Maybe it didn’t want her to speak. When she stopped attempting to speak, it released her.

  


By now the singing had transformed into a quieter, more higher pitched sound, though still deep and rumbling through to the very core of Yubin’s body.

  


“You’re very loud.” Caught off guard by the voice, the light between her hands flickered like a candle on a cold winter’s night. It was a quiet unassured and slow voice, distant and weak, yet somehow surrounding her everywhere. Was that the cause of the singing ice?

  


“Oh.” Yubin lowered her voice and spoke slower. “I’m sorry, did I hurt you?”

  


It giggled, with a similar beat to the laser like sounds that emerged from the singing ice. “Not as much as I hurt you apparently.” Its hands stroked her right calf, tracing what had to be a finger down the longest scratch, scant of piercing through the leather hide and woollen sock and digging its claw through her delicate skin.

  


Yubin couldn’t make out where the voice was coming from anymore, logically, it should be somewhere behind her, but Yubin was never one for logic, instead, she looked underneath her and then to her right and left and above. Even after looking behind, she couldn’t spot any physical body that seemed to be the home of the voice.

  


“What… Are you?”

  


The voice gave a cough like sound. “Not even an introduction? You seemed more polite than I thought you were.”

  


Right, where were her manners. “Sorry. I’m just startled is all, I’m sure you’d be disoriented if you were forcibly dragged somewhere strange.”

  


“Haven’t we all been dragged somewhere at some point in our lives?”

  


The light in her hands flickered, her concentration faltering after the unexpected change in conversation. Right, she still had yet to introduce herself properly to the voice.

  


“I’m Lee Yubin. I study at KumAc in Tzarah down south of The Wastelands here.”

  


“They call this place The Wastelands?” Ah, she probably should have just called it Hue, but no one bothered with the proper distinctions since they all blended into one place anyway. The voice gave an airy chuckle. “Back in my day, it had a better name: Farrow Lake.”

  


“Huh?” Never in her life had Yubin heard of such a place.

  


“This is Farrow Lake:” the voice seemed to back away from her, along with the presence of the arm near her leg. Following the decrease in volume, the sound of flowing water and a slow current pulled her forward, “it had the largest black forest surrounding it and was always blanketed with a fresh layer of snow everyday. I’m guessing it doesn’t exist anymore now, does it?”

  


“The forest? No, I’m sorry.”

  


A sort of sigh bubbled through the water, flowing around the lake, “It’s okay, things change, it's only inevitable. If only I were able to stop it though, I prefer the cool summer breeze over the permanent ice.”

  


Summer breeze? From what Yubin remembered, and she remembered well, how else was she the only one along with Yoohyeon to go to The Wastelands of all places for their research expedition, The Wastelands had always been in a winter-induced state. “What if I could break through it?”

  


“You can’t. It’s permanent.”

  


Yubin wondered what she meant by ‘permanent’, but that was a question that didn’t matter just yet. “So… What’s your name?”

  


If it made sense, she felt the owner of the voice smile. “They used to call me Handong, but just like everything in Hearthsworth, it doesn’t matter anymore.”

  


Hearthsworth? It didn’t sound familiar. “Is it okay to ask you what you are now?”

  


There was a long silence, long enough for awkwardness to settle and long enough for Yubin to wonder if Handong had heard her or even if she had outright vanished. “Hmm, for now, you can refer to me as a mermaid.”

  


“A mermaid?” That sounded even less familiar.

  


The voice laughed. “You know, for a student, you don’t know much, do you?” A pair of arms, if you could call it that, pulled her by the waist, and the ball of light all but vanished in shock. “A mermaid. Do you not know what those are?”

  


Yubin shook her head earnestly. She felt a sigh close to her face, did that mean that Handong was close to her?

  


“They’re… They’re half human half fish creatures.”

  


“Half human… Half fish?” The image of human legs dangling off a fish head popped into Yubin’s head and she started to laugh hysterically. Then the thought of the left side being a fish and the right side being a human came up made her laugh even harder, earning a few high pitched squeaks, and it was when Yubin threw her head back clapping that she felt herself tumble backwards into the watery abyss and the darkness returned once more as her ball of light vanished due to her lack of concentration.

  


It was pitch black, she must have ended up further away from the surface, but for some reason, she felt safe still, knowing she had some sort of company, and a smart seeming one at that. “You’re not very good at this magic thing are you?”

  


Watery hands held her upright, or what felt like upright and swiped her bangs away from her face revealing the smile on her face. “Excuse you, but I happen to be a great up and coming wizard.”

  


“Tch, you? Be a wizard? You can’t even do a proper light spell and you talk about becoming a wizard.”

  


Half offended, Yubin quipped back at her accusation, “I’ll have you know that I am one of the top students in my year. It’s just that for some reason, verbal magic doesn’t work here.”

  


“Deng!” She felt the water around her swish into an ‘x’ shape, further informing Yubin of her incorrect knowledge. “Underwater, verbal spells need gestures because water absorbs magic better than air, meaning that the spells themselves are more potent and concentrated but the range is shorter.”

  


Yubin pursed her lips, they’d never taught her that, nor had she heard of that either. “Gestures?”

  


“They don’t even teach you gestures? What kind of seawater-hill-billy school is this?”

  


Feeling a bit wary and downtrodden at the constant criticisms, Yubin crossed her arms, “I already told you, it’s KumAc: Khumal Academy.”

  


“Khumal Acade- hang on a minute… Why did they shorten it to KumAc?” How on earth was she supposed to know. “When I attended, it was called KAcs.” It didn't sound better, but at least it was shorter, albeit only by one syllable.

  


Then she realised what Handong had said. “You attended KumAc?”

  


“Yup.” But, wasn’t she just a blob of water?

  


“And now you’re stuck at the bottom of a lake?”

  


“Yup - wait no! I chose to stay here.” A pause. “I like it here.”

  


The meek nature of her last statement made her doubt that she really was under the lake by choice. “What, with all the company of a dead fish and howling wind?”

  


“... Yup.”

  


Before Yubin could say anything more though, the sound of banging above her snatched her attention. And before Yubin could do anything about that, she heard Yoohyeon shout for her name.

  


“Damn it to polaris and back, your friend is really loud you know.”

  


There was more chipping of the ice, until a bright light shone through the ice and a powerful wave sent her flying further away from the surface. Then there was another one, it rumbled the ice, but did not land much more than a small dent. Neptune's seas, she was exploding the ice.

  


“Seems like she really needs you now.” Familiar arms wrapped around her and propelled her closer to the icy layer that separated her and Yoohyeon. “Before I return you to the surface, will you promise me one thing?”

  


Light began to filter into her eyes and she was met with a ceiling of ice and the muffled yelling of spells being cast.

  


Yubin, never one to let someone down, nodded.

  


Fingers slipped through hers and spread her hand open, “I’m going to give you something precious of mine, okay? In exchange, I’ll take this.”

  


In front of her, she could see the necklace that she had sworn to wear all the time, somehow unhooked from her neck and floating up and down in place.

  


“Wait - what are you giving me in return? I can’t let you-”

  


A shushing sound followed by a finger placed on her lips quietened her down before she felt her enchanted choker being ripped away from her neck, causing her to hold her breath. The eight minutes were nearly up anyway.

  


“You’ll know soon. We’ll meet again Dami.”

  


Once again, she blacked out before really remembering how she returned to the surface.

  


It was the rain that woke her up this time. 

  


That was strange, it never rained in The Wastelands.

  


When she finally came to, the rain shifting from a light spit to bullets, her eyes took a while to adjust to the light, too used to the darkness that was Farrow lake. She sat up groggily, coughing up some water, did Handong always need to do that or was she just having fun? Besides the awful state in which she always ended up in after visiting what was under the layer of ice, Yubin focused on the sizable weight on her palm.

  


The exchange, right. No matter what the object was though, she was sure that it would never reach the same sentiment or value as that soulmate necklace she had with Yoohyeon.

  


Yoohyeon. Oh no. Where was she?

  


Pocketing the item without looking at it, Yubin slipped on the ice several times before finding her footing and whipping her head left and right in search for that tall friend of hers. She found her unconscious, with a wet face and even wetter hair, which suggested that it wasn’t the rain that had caused it as it was only now that it had gotten heavier.

  


“Yoohyeon?”

  


Yubin patted her cheek.

  


“Yoohyeon?”

  


She stirred, eye furrowing and a light groan on annoyance filling the otherwise silent rainfall.

  


“What happened?”

  


“I - I don't know, there was just water everywhere and before I knew it, I woke up.”

  


There was a slight jab of disappointment within Yubin, she had wanted to know how everything happened. Yubin helped her up, “It’s dangerous out here now, come on, we’ve overstayed our welcome at the inn.”

  


She ignored the heavy weight in her pocket and decided to explain it to Yoohyeon later when a better chance to talk about it occurred.


	4. Breaking the law doesn’t count if you didn’t know you were breaking one, right?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They return home confused and dazed and more willing to give conspiracy theories a shot than ever

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See you on the 1st Nov!

Neither Yubin nor Yoohyeon talked much on the journey back to Tzarah, minds still fresh about the raw power and mysteries of The Wastelands and heads still turning from the new flashes of unfinished information that turned their view of the world upside down.

  


They silently agreed not to talk to it to other people: not to talk about the land that existed before, the apparent seasonal Farrow Lake that resided in the now dead country or town or residence that was Hearthsworth and the unpassed knowledge of gestures of magic and whatever mermaids are - or were.

  


Beasts may not exist, but something similar and much more realistic to them did. So the first realistic thing Yubin did, after returning from their trip was ask people about mermaids. It didn’t go so well. Not even the conspiracy theorists knew about them. Which was odd, but expected. No manuals or texts or myths or legends either spoke about mermaids, or even half human creatures, let alone ‘half fish half human’ ones. And Handong hadn’t even elaborated on what she meant by ‘half fish half human’ either, so she was still stuck on as to which half was human and which half was fish or if she meant structurally or physically or anything else that wasn’t entirely seen by the naked eye.

  


Speaking of which, Yubin was pretty sure that Handong was not a mermaid, because though she lacked the understanding of what one was, she did not recall seeing half a human nor half a fish swimming around her, touching her, grabbing onto her from the surface and dragging her down into depths of Farrow Lake. Neither fish nor humans are watery masses, so she deducted that Handong was no mermaid: not that Yubin entirely knew what a mermaid was.

  


And Yoohyeon? She somehow was able to take all of this new undiscovered information better than Yubin could. She was not freaking out or questioning if everything that they had studied was a lie or a farce. Instead, she shrugged, “You know, there’s a reason a lot of the top mages and wizards are loony -” She took a deep breath, one all too loud for library, “You know, there’s a conspiracy that:”

  


Another conspiracy theory. Yubin was so close to rolling her eyes so hard that her eyeballs would pop off her skull, but she stopped herself so as to not look mean.

  


“They’re forced to undertake heavy interrogation by the government, so they all stock up on blocking potions and they overdose and become lunatics.”

  


Putting her book down, Yubin stared at her friend dumbfoundedly, “Yoohyeon, that’s great and all, but we haven’t drank any blockers.”

  


“Then the government must have slipped them into our drinks to keep us from learning the truth about The Wastelands. This Handong person? Probably a high ranking official who has been set on a task to lure any too curious locals or something.”

  


She sighed, not Yoohyeon too. This was getting ridiculous. Maybe she was spending too much time with Siyeon. “I’m not having any of this. The government wouldn’t spend that much money keeping something stupid as half fish creatures away from us. And concealing gestures? How many people need to cast spells underwater anyway?”

  


“Hmm.” Yoohyeon pulled onto one side of her lips, dissatisfied at how Yubin kept finding flaws in her made-on-the-spot theories and outlandish explanations of everything. “Oh! Oh! It’s to stop us from… Diving deep into the ocean and fishing out ancient texts that hide a deep secret from us!”

  


Yubin took another deep breath in, tired of her shenanigans and how it was clearly leading to nowhere and was not going to exactly help them in the future. “Okay - okay. Stop. This is getting ridiculous.” She stood up, and pushed her chair back, “There’s one thing knowing that there’s a huge gap in our knowledge and another making up random things up on a whim.”

  


“But someone clearly wants to hide something, like, why did they used to teach magic so in depth before but now we only know the ‘basics’ as this Handong person said.”

  


She sighed again. That part was at least the only smart thing that had come out of Yoohyeon’s mouth in a while, against her better judgement, she mulled over the facts they had learned in her head and tried to piece things together despite knowing they didn’t have enough to form a clear picture, “I just don’t get it though: why would they hide such little things from us?”

  


Yoohyeon rolled her eyes, “I’ve told you this before! It’s to hide something bigger, you know, small things and problems snowballing and stuff. It’s a way of micromanaging us.”

  


And she was right, of course she was, how else was she one of the top students. Deductive skills were absolutely needed in the field of magic study, too bad too much of it would prove her a danger to people, meaning that she typically hid it in case others tried to use it to their advantage.

  


“I know, but why? There must be a good reason for them to keep it from us, right? What if it’s dangerous? They kept us from learning those things because it’s hard to control?”

  


A finger lifted up, cutting Yubin’s train of thoughts, and that meant one thing and one thing only: Yoohyeon had gotten another idea, “But then why got through the trouble of teaching us the mechanics of forbidden spells then if they can just not teach it to us like with gestures.”

  


Curse the stars. “You’re right.” Yubin rested her head on her hands, tired of walking around in aimless circles with explanations and theories.

  


She shut her eyes and buried her head into her arms, everything that shouldn’t have happened had happened and she really should have never indulged in being curious for three years in the first place. Look where it landed her: in the library at midnight with both her and Yoohyeon on a merry goosechase for any type of information that would lead to anything that explained any of the phenomena that she had just experienced.

  


A part of her wanted to give up, but it was so strange and so infuriating to know that she didn’t know anything. Did that mean that everything she had learned in KumAc was a waste? Four years spent studying magic only to not even know more than a blob of water in The Wastelands. 

  


Then again, Handong could have been lying to her about gestures and Farrow Lake and Hearthsworth, but she had no motive or reason to. Unless of course what Yoohyeon said about weeding out too curious locals with a government agent was true. But that was stupid. And so was Yubin. And this was a stupid hopeless chase.

  


“Yoohyeon,” she whined out, “let’s stop. I’m so tired.”

  


Yoohyeon shut the book she had previously been skimming and scanning and waited for a response. “Fine. But only for today. Let’s go to my house, my parents are going to come home late.”

  


Yubin was not about to argue about the ‘for now’ part and instead just warily stood up on the legs she hadn’t used in hours and trudged back to Yoohyeon’s house, letting muscle memory carry her way back home and her mind just zone out in the utter existentialism of it all.

  


She leaned her head back onto the spare bed, staring at the ceiling and hearing the familiar shuffling sounds coming from her left side. As always, the two had pushed their beds together and Yoohyeon was busy rolling herself towards Yubin, whether intentionally or not.

  


Although her body was busy huddling up with Yoohyeon, focusing on the chills still being sent down her body, her mind was hung up with the unknown of The Wastelands and perhaps the unknown of everything she had learned and the unknown of the reason as to why so much basic information had been kept hidden from the student body and the public in general it seemed.

  


Most of all, Yubin was busy dissecting what in the Milkyway happened in the lake and what in the world Handong was and who she was and why she had taken her precious necklace and she had left a rusted amulet in her hand that seemed to grow heavier the longer she carried it. She regretted the day she stepped close enough to the lake to catch her singing and regretted coming back a second time to ease her worries. How long she spent that night with her eyes wide open replaying all of the actions she had taken and should not have taken that led to the incident of being dragged under was lost to Yubin’s warped sense of time in the darkness of Yoohyeon’s bedroom that seemed too similar to the darkness of Farrow Lake. One thing she was sure about however was that she would definitely be paying Handong a little visit once she graduated from KumAc.

  



	5. A year later and unemployment and homelessmess seemed less likely than it actually was

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Somehow, things just work and Yubin gets her way

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 16th Nov!  
> Also, I bought a lot of sweets for Halloween but then o remembered that Halloween was cancelled so now I'm stuck with 120 pieces of sweets that I don't particularly enjoy :/

Yubin passed the final exams without so much of a handful of gold and a couple endless hours spent trying to perfect both her practical and theoretical skills in magic. To say that she was proud of being able to wave about a sheet of paper with magic non-fading ink and a coal-black hat with the shield and emblem of Khumal Academy embellished onto the burgundy ribbon of it was an understatement. Not to mention that both she and Yoohyeon graduated at the same time as well - being in the same year and all. Life was going well, she had almost forgotten about the mysterious of The Wastelands and the mysterious of Handong and what had to be another conspiracy about the government. 

  


Almost.

  


Currently, Yubin and Yoohyeon were engrossed with the searching of a house, attempting to fulfill not only their dreams of living independently, but also complete their promise of living together too. However, they may have overestimated their job finding capabilities and underestimated the price of housing and real estate.

  


So that was how they ended up under the roof of Siyeon and her roommate (not a fellow conspiracy theorist thankfully). Siyeon was a year below them, in terms of academics, she was their senior when it came to age by a few years, as she had joined school late because education wasn’t exactly the best in Ghifar and it took a while for her to manage both money and time for studying for the entrance exam and paying tuition fees; obviously, she passed and was now studying in KumAc, two years, maybe three, older than the rest of her classmates, but by no means ashamed by it (it would have been four or five, or even none at all and been a baker, had she not worked as hard as she had).

  


The oldest inhabitant of Siyeon’s house - and yes, it was legally Siyeon’s because she had bought it with the hefty amount of she had saved up, plus she had a part-time job as a bartender - was Bora, a familiar face to the duo as she had been prefect for their year, graduating before the three could properly form a good stable friendship.

  


Considering their financial situation, Yubin had no way of returning to The Wastelands unless she planned on never returning to Dimah, or even society, and just staying at the bottom of that accursed lake. Plus, she hadn’t yet told Yoohyeon of her plan of venturing back into that icy land yet. There had to be a better way of breaking the news to her other than just admitting that she had an inexplicable urge to talk to Handong again.

  


Burying her stupid feelings, she went about her day aimlessly finding ways to reduce their spendings and scouring every area for a job vacany; hopefully one that was fitting of a graduating student, but who knows anymore about the future (she should have studied divination more, or even taken an apprenticeship under one).

  


There was always the option of joining The Empire and staying in the division that worked close to The Wastelands - but then would Yoohyeon be willing to do that too? What would the point of searching for a job be if she wasn't even able to spend the money or buying a house if she was never going to be in it anyway.

  


Life seemed more easy than she had expected - which she had expected, just not to that much of a degree.

  


In the end, sent by the department of agriculture and welfare, Yoohyeon and Yubin both returned to the same inn turned lodge in The Wastelands to continue their research, accompanied by soldiers of The Empire and more advanced equipment than they had ever laid their eyes on.

  


Pursing her lips, Yubin eyed the brilliant shine from beneath the black cloth, “Do you think we can touch it?”

  


“I hope so, otherwise they’d have sent it for no reason, right?”

  


“True, they’d be so disappointed if we didn’t collect any data because we were too scared to touch their stuff.”

  


Yoohyeon stuck a reluctant hand out and slid more of the protective fabric down, “Wow it’s so shiny.”

  


“How much do you think it cost?”

  


But before Yoohyeon answered, or the two were interrupted by the soldiers, the burly, much too happy inn - well, now lodge - owner interrupted the two. “- I’d say not much judging by the look of it.” He squinted and crouched down, brushing a gloved hand down the side of the round aura detector, humming to himself in appreciation, of the craft or his guess, Yubin could not tell, but he hummed in a satisfied tone. “Cheap but effective, they're as passive as ever, huh?”

  


Yoohyeon half turned to him, “The government?”

  


He let out a hearty laugh, “Look around here sweetheart, ain’t nothing but ice. If they could, they could probably fund enough students like yourself to clear the whole of Hue of artifacts and get rid of this permawinter.” He stood up and went back to the reception, ready to welcome more visitors - which for some reason, had grown exponentially since their last visit a year and a half ago.

  


“It’s always the ‘permawinter’,” started Yubin, “it’s always the ‘permawinter’ that throws me off. Handong said that there used to be a summer in Hearthsworth, which is now in Haria, which is even colder than Hue which means that it had to be hot at some point and if not hot, at least a large enough difference for there to be seasons.”

  


But before Yubin could continue, she was stopped by a sharp nudge from Yoohyeon and a wary side glance to the foot forward taken by one of the three soldiers.

  


“You’re overthinking again, haha! You spend way too much time with Siyeon!”

  


“And you spend too much time with Bora - how loud can you get?”

  


The two promptly carried their items, Yubin hauling over Yoohyeon’s coat and a stray notebook she had dropped onto the floor, up to their usual room; which had been so generously given to with a discount, and their prices had dropped as well which was probably due to the increase in the number of customers and visitors.

  


As they unpacked their stuff and placed the black fabric-covered machines onto the floor, they pushed their beds together and sighed into the warmth of their room - which was usually at least slightly chilly even on the sunniest days. Everything had changed so much, but the familiarity of being with Yoohyeon and the familiarity of the too soft bed and slightly itchy woollen blankets of their room made everything easier.

  


A part of Yubin wanted to uncover the machines already, but the other part was so exhausted with life and didn’t want to experience them with less than a fully energised mind so she heeded her tempted thoughts.

  


The following morning, as they received room service (a new thing, as the last time they had been there the food was served in the small restaurant-like area on the ground floor), the queerest exchange occurred. Yubin, pushed by Yoohyeon who had been overcome with a rare shyness she rarely exuded nowadays, walked to the door to accept their breakfast and was beckoned into the corridor by the server and in a hushed tone, was spoken to.

  


“Those soldiers that you’re attended by,” They looked left and right and whispered even quieter, “I’d be careful around them if I were you, you know, they say that The Empire has the highest rates of power abuse and I wouldn’t want any of you to leave without anything, okay?” The server took a step back, and smiled warmly. “Do tell the staff if they bother you in some way, we’re not affiliated with anyone elsewhere so we wouldn’t get in trouble for meddling.”

  


Not sure whether to be glad of the new information dumped onto her, Yubin nodded and smiled a bit too wide, taking in the food and plopping it in front of a worried looking Yoohyeon’s blanket covered lap.

  


“Yubin, what was that?”

  


Adjusting herself upright onto the headrest of the bed next to Yoohyeon, Yubin readied her knife and fork, “I have no idea. That person just told me to be careful around our soldiers because they were looking at us creepily.”

  


“Ugh, they’re so gross.”

  


Yubin nodded solemnly, not sure why she didn’t totally believe what the server had said.

  


**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on twitter!  
> @FiH0o


End file.
